Arapahoe County - A lawyer is accusing District Attorney Carol Chambers of hiding potential evidence in a sex case, a claim the lawyer hopes will lead to his client's freedom.

In court documents filed this month, attorney Tom Carberry is arguing the case of his client, Brent Wayne Sharpe, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2000 for sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend's daughter.

In a motion filed in Arapahoe County District Court, Carberry says that Chambers and former DA Jim Peters hid the fact that forensic investigator Carole Abbott, who conducted the key interview with the victim in the case, had been charged with being an accessory in the sexual abuse of her own daughter.

Abbott's husband, Paul, installed a video camera in a heating grate in his stepdaughter's room to videotape her in the nude. The court documents also say that he touched the girl inappropriately. Paul Abbott received probation in a plea deal, but that was revoked and he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Carole Abbott, a forensic investigator at Sungate Children's Advocacy and Family Resource Center in Arapahoe County, was charged as an accessory because her daughter complained to her about it, but Abbott didn't do anything, records say. Abbott was fired, and the charge was later dismissed. She could not be located for comment.

Carberry said then-District Attorney Peters and Chambers, who was the chief prosecutor on child sex crimes, sat on the board of directors of Sungate, a children's advocacy center that assists law enforcement in investigating abuse claims. While on the board, they were told of the charges against Carole Abbott but did not tell defense attorneys.